Communication

The Agile voting mechanism known as "Fist of Five" is a great way to drive your team towards consensus and commitment. It's a simple, powerful process that can strengthen alignment and increase transparency on your projects. Here’s a look at how — and why — it works.

Leaders who set unrealistic expectations often lack understanding of the intricacies involved in a project and the ripple effect they create on decisions, contingencies and risk. Still, best for project managers to assume good intent and work to overcome this challenge with detailed planning, communication and documentation.

The most effective project portfolio planning brings IT managers and business leaders together to prioritize, scope and staff initiatives as a single team with common goals. In doing so, the process fosters better working relationships — and provides a roadmap for delivering value to the organization.

Mistakes are inevitable on any project. Some are even valuable if they serve as lessons learned for future efforts. But mistakes that happen again and again are damaging. With the movie "Groundhog Day" as our guide, here are four common mistakes that no project manager should repeat.

A difficult conversation offers helpful guidance for team leaders faced with conflicting version of the truth, including the need to differentiate between intent and perspective, the importance of recognizing how inherent biases often blur understanding, and the value of fostering empathy through face-to-face communication.

Individual and collective negativity can derail new product ideas and innovations before they ever have a chance. Here are three useful practices to overcome our inherent bias against the unknown, and to give adept thinking a seat at the strategic planning table.

Do team members and executives in your organization see retrospectives as a waste of time and expense? If so, maybe your retrospectives aren’t providing the value they should, from establishing a culture of team learning and stressing continual improvement, to tracking metrics and celebrating successes.

Some organizations expect project managers to be “miracle workers” who produce results without the active support or involvement of leadership. And sometimes project managers are able to leverage resources, meet deadlines and achieve deliverables under these conditions. But it’s not a long-term strategy for success.

Whether you are a project leader or a team member, your relationships with others will probably be the most important factor in your own success, not to mention the success of the initiatives you work on. Here are 12 common traps that can damage relationships. Avoid them at all cost.

Individuals or teams may react negatively to change for a variety of reasons, from lack of information, to fear or misunderstanding about the implications, among others. Use this worksheet to invite communication and develop an appropriate response that addresses concerns while conveying the need and vision for the change.